Skagway

Skagway, Alaska

Picked up a copy of Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard yesterday afternoon at Powell's City of Books in downtown Portland. I was expecting a hard-boiled murder mystery, but it turns out to be about the Spanish-American War.

It starts with a couple of Americans looking for a way to make some money. They've got some horses so maybe they can sell them to someone who wants them. Skagway comes up as a possibility, there's a gold rush going on up there, and boy does that ring a bell. I haven't heard anyone mention Skagway in a long time.

I can't remember why, but it seems like there was a time when everyone was talking about Skagway. Could it have been a TV show? There was a TV show called Klondike which aired back 1960-61, which would have been the right time frame. I looked at a couple of clips on YouTube, but none of it seemed familiar.

Anyway, I looked up Skagway in Wikipedia and thought this picture was very cool. Now you might be wondering, like I was, just where it is.

Skagway, Alaska

Google Maps has slipped a cog. I expected Google Maps to stick one of their place markers on Skagway once I had zoomed out far enough, but not this time. Anyway, Skagway is about two thirds of the way up the Alaskan panhandle, about halfway between Juneau and Whitehorse.